Thursday’s introduction of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill by the British government was made in the House of Commons. The bill “aims to strengthen the U.K.’s fight against economic crime,” the government stated, adding that it will also help to combat terrorist financing.

The government explained:

The new law will make it faster and easier for law enforcement agencies like the National Crime Agency (the National Crime Agency) to seize and freeze crypto assets, which is the digital currency that organized criminals use to launder money from fraud, drugs, and cybercrime.

The bill also includes amendments to 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), which will support the recovery of crypto assets.

“We must ensure that law enforcement agencies have proper legislative framework to recover criminals’ crypto assets in order to ensure crime doesn’t pay and prevent these assets from being used to finance further criminality or terrorist activities,” the government stated. The Metropolitan Police reported a significant increase in the use of cryptocurrency in recent years.

Graeme Biggar, Director General of National Crime Agency commented:

For years, criminals from both domestic and international have laundered the proceeds and corruption through abuse of U.K. corporate structures. They are now increasingly using cryptocurrency.

Under the leadership of Liz Truss, crypto regulation could be changing in the U.K. Before she assumed office, several key figures who worked previously on crypto policy in the country resigned.

The U.K government presented its plans to encourage crypto adoption in May and reiterated its commitment regulate stablecoins.

Sunak stated in April that it was his ambition to make the U.K. the global hub for crypto-asset technology. The measures we have outlined today will ensure that firms are able to invest, innovate and scale up here. Glen also stated that he wanted the country to be a worldwide hub, the best place to launch and scale crypto-companies.